The day is almost here…FIELD TRIP TO THE PUMPKIN PATCH!!!  The children are so excited!  I promised them yesterday that I would post all of the fun activities that they would be doing on this blog…and then I forgot:(  A few let me know of their disappointment this morning so I told them that I would not forget today!  Here is a list of the activities that your child will be enjoying tomorrow.  
                     Machine Shop/Insect Area
                     Barn and tractor play
                     hayrides
                     pumpkin patch
                     straw tent
                     jumpy house
                     weather station
                     corn maze
                     bunnies, goats, donkeys
                     barrel rides
                     
Be ready for some tired little farmhands tomorrow night but the stories they will be able to tell you…priceless!

A few reminders:  Your child will need a sack lunch with his/her name written on it.  Everything will be thrown away there so please make sure their lunches are disposable.  They can also bring a water bottle as the temps look to be in the high 70's and they will be very active.  Play clothes and tennis shoes with socks would be best.  Please let me know if you have any questions at all.

It is that time again!  Time for fall conferences and I am so looking forward to taking some time to talk with each of you about your child's progress thus far.  Your child will be bringing the sign-up sheet home tonight so that you can sign up for a time.  Please list three preferences for times and I will do my best to give you your first choice if possible.  If none of the times will work for you, I am very flexible and will be happy to make other arrangements.

This is our rotation for related arts this week and next week (just in case my blog gets glitchy again:)

Tomorrow will be Music
Wednesday will be Library
Thursday will be P.E.
Friday will be Art ( We will be going to specials once we return from the field trip)

Monday, Sept. 29 -- Music
Tuesday, Sept. 30 -- Library
Wednesday, Oct. 1 -- P.E.
Thursday, Oct. 2 -- Art
Friday, Oct. 3 -- Music

Writers workshop and moon study

Writer's Workshop is in full swing and we are enjoying every minute of this special time in our day.  We have established the expectations for this time so that all can do their very best work.  We begin each workshop with a lesson on the craft of writing and then students have five minutes to share with a friend about what they will be working on during that time.  Once the music starts (classical:) then they begin writing on a topic of their choice.  At the end of workshop, there is another opportunity for the students to share with a friend or two about what they worked on that day.  The friends lend support whether it be in the form of a compliment, encouragement or suggestion.  This week we will be adding another component to this time.  Each student will have the opportunity to share their writing with the entire class at least once during the week at the end of workshop.  They are very excited about this!

I always begin each new study with asking the children what they think they already know about the new topic.  They are given a sticky note to record their knowledge in pictures and/or words and we post them under the heading of what we THINK we know.  As the study progresses over the week or month, we may find that some of our knowledge is incorrect and we move our sticky notes to misconceptions.  Our next study will be on Johnny Chapman aka. Johnny Appleseed.

I'm excited to say that this blog is finally up and running!  It's taken me a bit to get used to communicating in this way but I'm very excited that I will be able to add pictures to this blog so that you can actually see the learning happening each day.  This is just a quick sample of what you will be seeing.  We have finally kicked off our Writer's Workshop and I do believe that it has become one of the highlights of their day.  They can't wait to get started as their heads and hearts are full of great stories.  We began by brainstorming a list of possible topics that they could write about and this chart will stay up for a long time so that they will never be without ideas.  I am so impressed by all of them and their eagerness to get started and their ability to already write for twenty uninterrupted minutes!  They are taking risks and building confidence!  WOW!

I'm just testing this out to see if I'm on the right track in creating our class blog.